A letter posted from on board the Titanic that promised to give an opinion on the ship only when its journey was complete has sold for a record £300,000.
“I shall await my journey’s end before I pass judgment on her” wrote Archibald Gracie as he waited for the Titanic to sail.
Now his apparently prophetic lines have auctioned for more than 5 times estimate in a sale in Devises, England. The letter becomes the most valuable sent from on board the liner.
The card takes you as close as its possible to get to the disaster. Image courtesy of Henry Aldridge & Son.
Gracie’s letter was sold on Saturday, April 26 at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devises, Wiltshire, England.
Colonel Archibald Gracie is one of the best-known survivors of the Titanic disaster, though he did not live long after a horific experience during which he spent long periods in the icy North Atlantic awaiting rescue.
Around 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers who had boarded the “unsinkable” White Star liner Titanic drowned after it struck an iceberg.
Col Gracie’s words now seem to have a tragic foreshadowing.
Colonel Gracie, a real estate investor, behaved with a good deal of personal heroism during the sinking, and died as a result of the experience after arriving in America.
He wrote: “It is a fine ship but I shall await my journeys end before I pass judgment on her. The Oceanic is like an old friend and while she does not possess the elaborate style and varied amusement of this big ship, still her sea worthy qualities and yacht like appearance make me miss her. It was very kind of you to give me this kindly send off, with best wishes for your success and happiness Archibald Gracie.”
The letter was written on Titanic-headed letter paper and postmarked from Queenstown in Ireland, the ship’s last stop before a planned maiden voyage to New York.
The disaster that followed is one of the most compelling stories of the 20th century. It has triggered a huge collecting market that is setting records well over 100 years after the sinking.
The most valuable artefact from the ship is a violin that was sold as the one played by bandleader Wallace Hartley.
A memorial to Wallace Hartley in Colne, his home town. His story is among the most moving of the Titanic’s victims.
The musicians who kept up the spirits of doomed passengers as the liner sank are among the most famous heroes of a night that showed all sides of human behaviour.
The violin sold for $1.6 million-plus in 2013.
The huge success of the movie Titanic (1997) has added another level to the market.
Last year a prop of a piece of floating wood on which the film’s heroine Rose (played by Kate Winslet) was saved realised $718,000 at auction.
This sale sold the violin from that film for £54,000.
Gracie’s account of the disaster, written immediately on his arrival in the United States, is one of the most complete, and the basis for much of the story-telling since.
He is a major figure in the Titanic’s tragic story, but this sale against a top estimate of £60,000 can still be counted as surprising and a great measure of the continuing power of that dreadful night.
